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Dorna Sports issued the following press release confirming that beIN SPORTS will carry both MotoGP and WSB racing live this year, beginning this weekend with the WSB first round at Phillip Island. beIN should also feature the U.S. roadracing series MotoAmerica. We are sure many of our readers might be interested in coverage of these events. If so, follow this link to beIN SPORTS.

Here is the press release from Dorna:

Dorna Sports are thrilled to announce beIN SPORTS as the home of two-wheeled racing in the US and Canada, with a new exclusive deal that sees the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship join the MOTUL FIM WorldSBK Championship on beIN SPORTS, beIN SPORTS en Español and beIN SPORTS CONNECT. North American viewers will have unrivalled access to every lap of the world’s premier motorcycle roadracing championships, as well as complementary original programming to bring fans all the action from the heart of the paddock. beIN SPORTS will also feature original news, editorial analysis and multimedia elements throughout the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship, with insight from the network’s top sports journalists. In addition, programming on beIN SPORTS CONNECT is offered in HD for the ultimate MotoGP™ and WorldSBK visual experience, and access online, on tablet and on smart phones makes sure every moment of the world’s best motorcycle racing is at your fingertips. “We are thrilled to have acquired the exclusive US broadcast rights to the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship, where the best racers line up on the most renowned tracks around the world; this is truly the pinnacle of motorcycle racing and beIN SPORTS is happy to be able to deliver this to our viewers in the US,” said Yousef Al-Obaidly, Managing Director of beIN SPORTS. “Sports fans demand the best of the best, and with the acquisition of the MotoGP™ World Championship and our renewal of FIM WorldSBK, we continue to provide exactly that.” “The agreement reached between Dorna and BeIN in the USA and Canada is important for the success and development of motorcycle racing in North America” added Manel Arroyo, Managing Director, TV & Media Area, Dorna Sports. “BeIN will become the home of the top road racing series, as on top of MotoGP and WorldSBK they will start airing MotoAmerica this season. It’s great news for the fans in the US and Canada to have the coverage they deserve. We also know that BeIN is going to offer viewers unparalleled comprehensive broadcasting with studio presentations and onsite presence at the US rounds of both World Series. In addition, we are thrilled to have MotoGP aired in Spanish in USA for the 1st time, expanding the reach of the sport to its maximum”. The new era of WorldSBK kicks off on the 27th of February at one of the world’s most spectacular racetracks, Phillip Island: last year the stage for one of the greatest MotoGP™ races in history. The lights go out for the 2016 MotoGP™ World Championship on the 20th of March in Qatar as those rivalries of 2015 reignite, with the new season look set to be as close and unmissable as the last.

81 Comments

Interesting that in some of the world everything is being broadcast on ESPN according to motogp dot com

Dorna and ESPN extend their broadcasting deal by three years in Latin America and the Caribbean.

ESPN announces a 3-year contract extension with Dorna Sports, securing the distribution of the MotoGP™ World Championship throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

In accordance with the terms of the contract extension, ESPN will broadcast the complete 2016, 2017 and 2018 seasons of MotoGP™, including Free Practices, Qualifying sessions, Races and highlights, as well as additional coverage of the Moto2™ and Moto3™ World Championships.

Holygeezer, yes I was able to watch both races on SlingTV via the Roku. They also had a show recapping the 2015 season and an another Pre-Season 2016 show. You can do a 14-day trial via Roku after you install the channel. I signed up as a T-Mobile customer for $14 + $5 (for Sports Extra) with a 7-day free trial. It also worked on my Amazon Fire TV, Android tablet & phone and PC.

International Dateline. Just like Assen’s Motogp event is on Saturday. Bein sports has always had a schedule lag on the Directv channel guide. Hang in there, it will be worth it, because BEin is a fledgling network it has lots of network sports promos but lots more race coverage than all other broadcast networks that show us two wheels in a hurry.

Well, when DISH first initialized BEIN channel it wasn’t HD, but within the hour I was receiving the signal in HD, so I am happy about that. It also was enjoyable to watch the entire race 2 without commercials.

Well, I hate to miss MotoGP, and wouldn’t mind seeing WSB since Nicky is now racing in it, so I just now called DISH and upgraded my programming to get BEIN. I had a choice of getting the sports package for an extra $13 a month or going from my present 20 0channel package to the 250 channel package for an extra $10, so I chose the 250 upgrade. I am now getting BEIN, bit it is not in HD. That is crap.

I have Roku. Do I understand it correctly that you can get the Sling channel thru Roku and it has BEIN? If so, what is the cost of that? Thank you.

re: “Please know that programming guides on beIN Sports’ website and on other television providers’ websites may not list tonight’s race broadcast as “Motorcycle Racing,” causing some Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) programmed to record “Motorcycle Racing” to miss the broadcast.”

Dude! Why would you announce that here? Fortunately I know better now than to check my Motorcycle Daily feed before watching the race.

Since you spoiled it for everyone already, I’ll go ahead and comment. Van der Mark made that uncompetitive Honda look pretty competitive. Good on him. He ran an exciting race. Hayden unfortunately made the uncompetitive Honda look pretty uncompetitive.

Hayden looked plenty competitive until his front tire went off. Now the question is, is it the tire, the setup, or something with his riding style. Let’s see if they figure something out for tomorrow (tonight).

BTW, Nicky’s qualifying time was just a TENTH slower than his MotoGP time from last fall. And he was within half a second of the pole time, which was a SBK lap record. So… Is Nicky really too slow? Or was his MotoGP bike a turd?

He was in good form for the first half of the race. But then so were 9 or 10 other riders. His team mate looked good throughout the race, so there is probably something in Hayden’s style/setup that needs to be worked on.

Hayden needs to consistently perform at a level at or above his teammate. I think he can do it… or hope he can anyway. Fingers crossed for Race 2.

Subscribed to the Comcast Sports Package at $5. per month for 1 year. I didn’t see that beIN Sports in English was in HD though. I’ll have to check again. The Spanish version was HD. I’m assuming that the Web Connect feature is all HD….I hope!

It looks like Comcast does have it here (Seattle) but we will have to pay an extra 10 bucks for the sports package per month. Have to think about it. If all 3 (MotoAmerica, WSB, MotoGP) are in 1 place though now it’s probably worth it.

Well, I guess I don’t get to watch any of the races live this year and will have to torrent them. It’s not part of my cable package and I already hate how much I spend on that, so good move Dorna, let’s make MotoGP even less visible in the US.

I am so tired of everything I want to watch costing more and more. I have already given upon NFL and only watch college FB when the networks show it now it looks like no more MotoGP. Velocity has given us some good MC racing I will enjoy it while I can.

Man, I miss the days when if you wanted to watch TV, all you had to do was pull out the power knob on the console and select a channel. Sit… watch… become lobotomized.

All these hoops people jump through nowdays is ridiculous. Get this provider and that provider, purchase this box and this adapter and another box, then subscribe to this package and this app and that app and another app and even more apps…

So much for technology making our lives easier. And are you really saving any money with all the individual subscriptions?

Saving money? Haha, surely not. But that isn’t the goal anyway. Those same four free channels we had back in the day are still available for free for anyone who may want them. Personally, I prefer to choose what I want to watch, where I want to watch it and when I want to watch it… commercial free please. That makes my like easy. I’m happy to pay for that.

I’m with Jeremy, it’s not about saving money but rather the convenience and quality of what you get to watch. Look, you’re either a fan of the racing or your not and it’s not that much money if you’re a fan. For MotoGP you pay $110 for 18 race weekends. That’s a whole $6.11 per MotoGP race, but consider that you also get Moto2 and 3 races and you get to watch them when you want to. So if you get into watching all three classes (which you really should) then that’s only $2.04 per race. You can’t get a cup of coffee for that. Heck if you have one of those Nespresso machines you’re paying more than that. I wouldn’t go back to the old days of network TV coverage for anything. It was terrible back then and it’s worse now.

This is what we get for being motorcycle racing fans, instead of football fans.

But in the end, there are plenty of ways to watch all of these racing series, and it’s better than last year! I mean, fanschoice.tv? Please.

Thirty years ago, the ONLY way to follow MotoGP/500’s was to wait by your mailbox for 3 or 4 days for your copy of Cycle News to come, so you could read about what happened last weekend. We’ve come a long way…

I would love to stream the races but not going to pay MotoGP over $100 to do it. I also don’t see the point in kicking worthless cable to the curb just to sign up for another cable like subscription with Sling. IMSA has a deal with Fox Sports yet they post every WeatherTech series race in HD on their youtube channel within a couple days. That should be the standard for any series. I watch every race and support the sponsors every chance I get.
Paying money though to watch tracks full of advertisements with bikes full of advertisements like it is a privilege is insane. This isn’t about the fans or growing the sport and fan base this is about making as much money as possible. I’ll gladly get off the couch and enjoy a nice ride through the mountains instead.

I guess you didn’t actually read my post, I don’t have cable, got rid of it years ago like most everyone else under 40yrs of age, and it seems pointless to do so just to replace it with another subscription to another service providing a bunch of crap I don’t need (yet again) just to watch WSBK and MotoGP. I can stream a number of race series for free or catch them on youtube. I watch those, the rest I live without. MotoGP has a youtube channel, they can put the races out there but they choose not to because of greed. Same story for WSBK. Long term, shortsighted greed will kill the sport.

Here comes the career MCD poster. I guess you don’t realize YouTube pays pretty well for content watched via their advertising. Hence why people like shmee150 get millions per year from views. IMSA is plenty happy doing it this way, i.e. the coverage is top notch, HD, and they still have a deal with FoxSports. I guess they aren’t making money because they don’t sell a $100 viewing package on their website eh? Get a job and stop wasting space with your stupid replies.

Dorna gets millions from every single track, the tracks make millions on ticket sales and t-shirts etc, Yamaha races because it helps sell bikes, they get paid in part from sponsors. Riders get paid for wearing a certain helmet and leathers. There is a ton of money coming in from everywhere. Yet people will be happy to pay for replaying something that is a rolling advertisement of products.

Dorna wants every penny it can squeeze out of the sport just like Bernie in F1. This attitude is absolutely killing the sport. Only the diehards are willing to pay for it. e.g. At the rate F1 is losing viewers they won’t exist in five years.

Jorge, it was a remark to generate some conversation on your interesting point. I wasn’t trying to be a smartass or insult you, and I am sorry to have come off that way and caused any offense. I post here because I enjoy the comments of others that post here, including yours. Yes, I probably post way too much.

If YouTube were the best way for Dorna to make money off of MotoGP and WSBK, then I suspect you’d be able to watch the races on Youtube. Whether you call it greed or business sense, Dorna wants to maximize its revenue. Youtube and similar may be the way of the future for broadcasts, but it isn’t here yet in my opinion.

I don’t know enough about IMSA to comment on their business strategy or why Youtube distribution works for them and not for Dorna, but it is interesting.

I hear a lot of the blues being sung here. MotoGP has always been available through live streaming and recorded streaming on MotoGP.com. BeIn has the best coverage of motorsports on television. It’s great to have another option beyond the streaming service MotoGP offers. MotoGP.com servers were pretty bad last year causing live feeds to cut out during the races.

Can’t get beIn where I am. What a shame they picked a relatively poorly distributed network. I get around 15 sports channels, so hard to believe I don’t have this one, but there you go. I may look into the Amazon Fire/Roku solution.

really surprised Velocity didn’t jump on this (who knows, maybe they tried?) since they carry the TT and BSB. CBSSN (who were carrying MotoAmerica) aired some Irish roadracing last year (not even the original Speedvision showed that): Olivers Mount, Dundrod, Cookstown, and the Southern from the Island. they may have even shown the Northwest 200…? but my DVR never picked it up.

what a bunch of crap. Directv only offers beIN sports if you subscribe to their $140 per month premium package which means my monthly package would go from $75 now to $140 per month. I love motorcycle racing but no way I will pay $140 per month to watch. I’ll buy my MotoGP and WSBK online packages and watch on my ipad.
Way to lose more viewers MOTOGP and WSBK.

Unfortunately, my cable provider doesn’t offer the BeIN Sports Network. I have contacted them about the possibility of adding it to their channel lineup and was told that they have no plans to do that at this time. I have also contacted BeIn to see if it’s possible to buy a subscription to their BeIN Sports Connect streaming service, but that’s only available to people who have a subscription to a TV provider who carries their network. Basically, I’m screwed! My only LEGITIMATE option is to switch from my cable TV/internet provider to DirecTV, Dish Network or AT&T U-verse… but I’m not willing to do that. I AM willing to PAY a reasonable amount to stream these races online, but that is apparently not possible, so my only PRACTICAL option is to look for illegal recordings of the races online and watch those. I guess that’s what I’ll have to do.

Well at least I still have my MotoGP subscription. Wow cable in ohio doesn’t get bein and I’m not changing providers over this. I liked watching the race on my big screen on FS1 and then streaming the different cam angles on my 36″ Mac monitor at the same time.

Awesome, as it so happens when we moved last year and got a new cable provider BeIN became part of my current package, and I have really missed WSBK the past few years where I was before so this is good news. No more torrents for me!

Sadly, beIN Sports is not available in my area. While I will miss the live broadcasts of MotoGP, I will not miss the FS1 announcing team or the FS1 production qualities. Time will tell how well beIN Sports does with their team.
No matter how this change is spun in the press releases, I can’t see it as an upgrade due to the fact that beIN sports is not available to nearly as many viewers as Fox Sports is.

BEIN Sports has the best coverage of two wheel sports on television. All SBK events are shown in their event order and complete coverage for some are from flag to flag, amazing. Even some Super-poles are covered. Hated to watch MOTOGP on Fox, it was incredible how often the pass or other major event of the race occurred during the numerous commercial breaks.
MOTO America on CBS Sports channel was worse than watching events on ABC Wide World of Sports in the 70’s.

Adding BeIn to my cable package is $10/month (plus taxes). Paying for the Dorna streaming is $150+ for MotoFP and another $75+ for WorldSBK. How expensive is your BeIn that the streaming option is cheaper? Did you find a cheaper streaming option?

Joe, the regular non-multiscreen season sub to MotoGP is e99.95 and e69.90 for WSBK. At their current exchange rate that’s $109.76 plus $76.89. I feel the multi-screen feature is just a distraction as the regular subs give you full coverage of all the races, practices and qualifying for all classes. I like being able to see the talent coming up from Moto2 and 3 and getting to watch the Supersport races which never fail to excite. That’s a lot of racing for $187. This year it looks like you can get just monthly subs too if there is part of the season you don’t mind missing.

I have basic TV, no cable box, $15/month. I pay for netflix, I have paid for motoGP, for last few years, paying for SBK too this year. I am 65 years old and was a fan when you found out what happened a week later. You cheap whiners need to pay up and enjoy great coverage of the sport you love. Going to COTA for the third time, have only missed one year at Indy, been to Laguna Seca twice, thinking about Europe in August for German and Austrian rounds and Polish speedway GP. Ride an old bike and spend some money on entertainment.

When motorcycling racing coverage was one or two Wide World of Sports filler episodes, months after the event, per year, it would have been inconceivable to expect to see a full season, much less see live or at least with little delay a race from France or Spain. Stop whining.

Back in the mid 1980s a motorcycle shop in San Jose was getting VHS tapes of one or two races at a time about two weeks after they ran and renting them out. He did a brisk business. That was a great advance everyone thought to see the races only a couple weeks after they ran! And back then there were complete seasons on VHS available too.

Paying for beIn TV or paying for the MotoGP feed supports motorcycle racing, it shows there is an audience and demonstrating that will improve racing coverage and availability.

The reason motorcycle racing is on beIN TV, not ESPN is there is no evidence to prove an audience base worthy of expending the finite time a network has on content that’s without a constituency.

Great news. Bein has given good coverage to WSB. Good riddance to Fox Sports on MotoGP. Their coverage was better than nothing but it was shamefully poor. It will also be nice to have regular coverage on MotoAmerica races..

I believe you have to have an account with a “TV provider” before you can open an account with beIN sports. Us public network television viewers are out of luck even if you have a computer ready television or a computer connected to your television you still can’t just join beIN sports and download the programs.